According to the letter, much of the traffic disruption was attributed to Waymo vehicles and gaps in existing state oversight. The letter said the incident “demonstrated that California’s current regulatory framework does not adequately address how autonomous vehicles operate during major incidents, planned or not.”<\/p>\n
Some residents have called for Waymo vehicles to be kept off the streets during large events.<\/p>\n
Lynnet Spiegel, who said she was stuck behind six Waymo vehicles during the holiday, said, “They definitely should not be around when there’s big events happening because it just screws up the whole entire city.”<\/p>\n
MORE: 3 Waymo self-driving cars in ‘standoff’ cause traffic jam in San Francisco<\/a><\/p>\n Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor and transportation technology scholar, said restricting autonomous vehicles during major events could be a short-term solution in some situations but not a permanent one.<\/p>\n “You need to be able to get that janitor home in the middle of the night. You need to be able to get that emergency room technician into the hospital, and simply saying it’s too hard. Sorry, we’ll see you when things work better actually isn’t an option,” Smith said.<\/p>\n Lurie also said that during the July 4 gridlock, “reports indicated that public safety manual overrides did not work as designed” for Waymo vehicles.<\/p>\n Smith said the incident should be viewed as a warning sign.<\/p>\n “It is the early warning sign. It’s the red flag that all is not right and that really does matter because next time it could be worse, next time things could line up in a different way and people could be trapped or firefighters could be impaired,” he said.<\/p>\n The mayor is calling for a functioning override system, greater transparency before, during and after major events, and proof that autonomous vehicle systems can handle large-scale incidents.<\/p>\n
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